Ah summertime… School’s out! The days are long! The sun is shining! It’s time to hit the road for a summer road trip!
Now is the time for travelling to see out-of-town family. Visiting old friends. Exploring new places. Revisiting old ones.
While we’re not traveling this summer, we have had many summer road trips. We’ve lived hours from family for the past fifteen years.
Many times when I travel, I travel solo with the kids. My husband often has to work. So, I use these tips and tricks to manage long road trips on my own!
6 Sanity Savers for Your Summer Road Trip
When we do travel to visit family, we’re in the car for 5-8 hours each way. That’s a lot of travel time! So, I have to plan ahead for our time in the car to make it as enjoyable as possible for everyone.
Thank goodness my kids are past the age {for the most part} of fighting in the car. That helps a lot, but so does the list of tips I’m sharing below.
Audio Books
We like to listen to audiobooks when we take long trips. I like to pull from a list of books that correlate with our homeschool studies or from a list of classics I’d love to introduce to my kids.
We all enjoy listening to books in the car. They break up the monotony of the long drive – especially in those areas where the radio signals are weak.
Food
In order to not break the bank on our travels, I pack food! I’ll pack sandwiches and finger foods for lunches. Homemade muffins make great breakfast foods for the car. Sliced smoked sausages, cheese cubes, cold pastas, crackers, and meatballs with BBQ sauce all make great finger foods that can be eaten in the car with minimal mess.
I’ll grab snacks – cookies, chips, fresh fruit & veggies with dips – from Costco before we start packing. I’ll fill a cooler with water bottles, juices, and sodas for the road.
On especially long trips, we will find a rest stop where we can stop and have a picnic. It breaks up the day, and it allows us to get out and stretch our legs.
Novelty Pics
If we aren’t on a timeline when we travel, it’s fun to stop at random places along the way for a quick picture. This allows us to stretch our legs, and it makes great memories. There’s usually a lot of laughing involved.
Roadside America is a fun iPhone app that allows you to locate odd places for a “unique” pit stop on your way to wherever you are going. We used this app a few years ago as we traveled from TX to NOLA, and we had a blast taking pictures with a giant crayfish, the world’s largest mailbox, and more!
Travel Bags
My kids always pack travel bags for road trips. Today, as teens, their bags consist of books, headphones, music, movies, a few little snacks, and a travel game or two.
When they were younger, their bags contained favorite stuffed animals, Hot Wheels {for the boys} or Littlest Pet Shops {for my girl}, coloring books and colored pencils, travel games, picture books, and movies for the portable DVD player.
Surprises
I can remember our first really long road trip with little ones. It was when we moved from KY to TX. I decided to create car bags that were separate from the ones the kids packed for themselves. These held surprises that I individually wrapped in wrapping paper.
Every hour, they could open a new surprise. I kept the cost as minimal as possible by shopping at the Dollar Tree and the dollar spot at Target. They have a huge selection of goodies for kids of all ages.
I grabbed new coloring books and toys for girl. I grabbed crossword puzzles and beef jerky for my boys. My daughter got new headbands and sunglasses while my sons got new headphones and laser pointers for “drawing” on the back of the seat.
Not only did this give the kids something to look forward to throughout the long trip, but it also kept the “are we there yet” questions at bay. They could “see” how many hours we had left of our trip.
Leave at night
We did this when the kids were little. We did it again last summer. I’m not typically a fan of driving at night. However, with babies and toddlers, I have found it easier to leave at or after their normal bedtime.
Last summer, we met my sister at the beach in NC for vacation. Her youngest was four, and he was not a fan of long car rides. So, they planned to let him stay up as late as he could the day of our departure.
Our hope was that he would sleep through the bulk of the overnight drive (and he did). That made their drive much easier.
What do you do to make traveling with kids a little easier?
BOOKS ABOUT SUMMER
Fill your book basket with a great collection of summer picture books. Most of these books can be found at your local library or used bookstore. If you have a hard time finding them, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the images below.Summer is Here! – Pick blueberries, see a caterpillar grow from an egg to a butterfly, or take a trip to the lake or beach with your family. Peek under rocks, look up in the trees, dive into the water–there is so much to learn and so much to discover together when you read Summer is Here!I See Summer – Follow Dad, Grandma, and other family members as they pick and count. Hidden numbers on every page give readers an opportunity to search and learn. Summertime in the Big Woods – The winter is finally over, and now it is summertime. Laura and Mary are busy all day helping Ma in the garden and playing outside.
ROUND OUT YOUR UNIT WITH THESE ACTIVITIES
If you love using peg dogs in your imaginative play area, you don’t want to miss these eco-friendly Summer Peg Dolls decorated with hand painted summery flowers!
Storytelling is part of the learning process. Add some summer story stones to your reading and literacy centers.
Whitney L. Wagner says
I love these ideas; I’m definitely pinning them for our next trip! We just recently took a day trip, but the drive was long–about 3 hours or so, and I have to say packing a travel bag was one of the best things we could have done. So that tip was by far my favorite, but all the other ones are smart as well. 🙂
Emma says
Definitely agree with you about snacks! A surprise bag is also a great idea – it doesn’t need to cost a lot to keep the kids occupied for a bit!
Cathy Lawdanski says
I love all of these – especially the ap that tells you fun places to take pictures!